Make Easter easy with ham

Make Easter easy with ham

Hams are a great — and tasty — convenience, as they often come precooked, mostly just requiring heating through (which enhances the flavour of a pre-cooked ham) and will serve everything from a small gathering to a large crowd.Photo by
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A waft of sweet cloves and caramelizing pineapple would greet us at my grandmother’s house after a long day of skiing our hearts out in the mountains. Once a visit, she would pull out all the stops with a gorgeous ham as the centrepiece of a feast.

And then the ski lunches that followed in the days after: fresh buns stuffed with slices of ham, garnished with mayo, mustard and lettuce.

With all the attention on the glazed, diamond-scored ham roast studded with whole cloves and rings of pineapple, little did I realize that the real work lay in making the multitude of side dishes, including three different salads, scalloped potatoes and vegetables.

The ham itself took maybe 15 minutes to pull together.

Easy to cook

Hams are a great — and tasty — convenience, as they often come precooked, mostly just requiring heating through (which enhances the flavour of a pre-cooked ham) and will serve everything from a small gathering to a large crowd. For added convenience, there are even pre-sliced "spiral" hams that make carving a breeze.

(Cottage roll hams and pickled hams, of course, do require a thorough cooking.)

All cuts of pork are tender, in part due to the young age of the animal, which is ready for market at 160 to 180 days. A little care in the cooking will protect that tenderness.

"If you overcook pork, which tends to be relatively common practice in Canada, then you’ll start to sacrifice the tenderness, the flavour, the juiciness," says Mary Ann Binnie, manager of nutrition and food industry relations for the Canadian Pork Council. "There hasn’t been a (health) need to overcook pork for ages."

Today’s recommendation is to cook most pork to an internal temperature of 155 °F (68 °C) — use a meat thermometer — and then let it rest under a foil tent until it reaches 160 °F (71 °C).

Ground pork needs to be cooked to 160 °F (71 °C); pork tenderloin does best cooked at 400 °F (200 °C) to an internal temperature of 155 °F (68 °C), which takes about 25 minutes.

High health value

The nutrition profile of pork has changed over the years.

"As our production methods improved or changed, pork today is significantly leaner than pork 10 or 20 years ago," Binnie says. "As such, it’s a very nutrient-rich food. In a three-ounce portion of pork, you get a lot of nutrients. When we’re looking at weight loss or maintaining weight, you really have to choose your calories wisely."

"I think we’ve come around to realize that a quality protein and the key role it has in maintaining and restoring body health is very critical," Binnie says.

Pork is also a good source of iron, which helps shore up the immune system, helps the body and cognitive functions develop, and maintains healthy pregnancies.

Pork has become so lean that dryness was becoming an issue when it was overcooked. Manufacturers are now brining — injecting a salt water solution — into meats to retain juiciness even when overcooked. Not all pork is "moisture enhanced," however; different stores carry different products, Binnie says. Reading the packaging labels or asking the staff will help clarify whether the meat has been brined.

This year I’ll be making a ham for Easter, one that follows in Granny’s footsteps.

While I may give the Brussels sprouts side dish a pass, and only offer one green salad, I think I’ll still put the effort into those scalloped potatoes. And of course, we’ll have to find the last bit of snow to ski on and work up an appropriately large appetite.

RECIPES

Granny Stirling's Ham

1 leg butt half roast (bone in, cooked)

whole cloves

1 can pineapple rings (reserve juice for glaze)

Glaze:

1/2 cup (125 mL) brown sugar pineapple juice

1 tsp. (5 mL) ground mustard

1/2 tsp. (2 mL) ground cloves

1 tsp. (5 mL) cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 °F (160 °C).

Prepare ham by cutting off the rind and most of the fat. Score the fat in a diamond pattern. Place one whole clove in each cross.

Prepare the glaze by mixing just enough pineapple juice into the brown sugar to make a paste. Separately, mix together the mustard, ground cloves and cinnamon, then mix into brown sugar paste.

Place ham in a roasting pan with the rest of the pineapple juice. Spread paste over the ham. Place ham in oven and bake for a total of 10 minutes to the pound. In the last half-hour, pin rings of pineapple over ham with toothpicks.

With a sharp knife, score fat in a diamond pattern and insert cloves to decorate. Place ham in a shallow roasting pan, fattest side up, with 2 to 3 cups (500 to 750 mL) water. Cook for about 15 minutes per pound (500 g), or until a meat thermometer registers 140 °F (60 °C). Meanwhile, mix remaining ingredients for the glaze. During last half-hour of cooking, raise temperature to 350 °F (180 °C), and brush liberally with glaze. Add more water if bottom of pan starts to burn. Repeat glazing after 15 minutes.

When cooked, allow ham to rest for 15 minutes before carving. Use leftovers for salads, sandwiches, or in a pasta dish. Serves 12 to 14.

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